Kabul Falls to Taliban and the World Doesn't Know What's Next

The David Pakman Show - August 16, 2021

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Afghanistan Falls to Taliban, Afghan President & US Diplomats Flee Country

Over the weekend, the Taliban captured the Afghan capital city of Kabul after gradually picking up territory across the country. Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani, had to flee the country in exile and the US was forced to evacuate its embassy. Taliban fighters can be seen all over the city and leadership is set up in the presidential palace. US President Biden announced Saturday the deployment of 5,000 troops to Afghanistan to ensure “an orderly and safe” drawdown and help evacuate US personnel and those who aided in US efforts. Biden released a statement on Saturday that hinted the Taliban’s takeover to be almost an inevitability. It read, “one more year, or five more years, of U.S. military presence would not have made a difference if the Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country. And an endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me.” Biden also mentioned the reason for going to war in Afghanistan was to defeat Osama bin Laden and degrade al-Qaeda, which has long been accomplished. He said, “when I became President, a small number of U.S. troops still remained on the ground, in harm’s way, with a looming deadline to withdraw them or go back to open combat.”

As the world struggles to grasp what to do next, some countries have already expressed support for recognizing the Taliban as the sovereign authority of Afghanistan. Recommendations for what the US should do falls mainly under two camps: There’s the side, particularly on the right and in corporate media, that says the military needs to go back in full force. There’s the other side, mainly on the left but also in the noninterventionist right, that say this is an endless war that has already cost the US taxpayers trillions of dollars. Unfortunately it’s not always as easy as some of these armchair military strategists make people believe. But one thing is obvious, which is that any analysis of what to do next cannot be removed from the fact that the US is responsible for much of this chaos in the first place. The decision to go into the Middle East has led to a further destabilizing of the region and hundreds of thousands of people dead.

Trump's Niece: 'Big Lie' Was Pushed Because Trump Was Humiliated

Mary Trump, the niece of Donald Trump, came out with a phenomenal article in the New Republic yesterday and psychoanalyzed a lot about her uncle. One of the things Mary wrote about was the origin of the “big lie” conspiracy theory and she affirmed what many of us already knew — that Trump lied about the election being rigged to protect his shallow ego. Mary said about the “big lie” and the January 6th insurrection: “For the first time in our nation’s history there had not been a peaceful transfer of power, because my uncle, who could not accept his resounding defeat and the humiliation that came with it, had attempted to inspire a coup.” Trump had to tell everyone that he won the 2020 election to shield the fact he was embarrassed to have lost to Joe Biden. What followed were endless election challenges, Rudy Giuliani and other cronies touring the country, and ultimately the Capitol takeover on January 6th. A significant portion of the US population will now think whenever they lose an election it’s because the other side stole it and Donald Trump is chiefly to blame for that.

From over the weekend:

Pelosi SMASHES McCarthy For Ignoring Capitol Police Officers

Nancy Pelosi’s office ridiculed Republican lawmakers who continue to back Donald Trump after he once again criticized Capitol police officers for their response on January 6h. Last week, Trump announced he had met with the parents of Ashli Babbitt and he released a statement that read: “I spoke to the wonderful mother and devoted husband of Ashli Babbitt, who was murdered at the hands of someone who should never have pulled the trigger of his gun. We know who he is.” A spokesperson for the House Speaker’s office, Robyn Patterson, pointed out the ex-president’s statement is part of a trend and she criticized Republican lawmakers specifically for being complicit in Trump’s words. Patterson wrote, “in recent weeks, Republicans have slandered these officers as 'executioners' and 'murderers' and insulted their intelligence and integrity on national television.” For a few hours on January 6th there appeared to be a chance that Kevin McCarthy, Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republican lawmakers would turn on Trump for going too far. But at this point, they have accepted that to keep their political careers, they’ll need to put up with him no matter what.

More on the show:

--Farron Cousins, host of Farron Balanced and Ring of Fire, fills in for David

--Mike Lindell's cyber symposium ends in embarrassing fashion with no evidence getting revealed of the 2020 election being stolen

--The Biden administration offers federal assistance to school leaders who defy Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's mask mandate ban

--The US reaches a record number of children hospitalized for COVID-19

--Fox News has a super fluffy relationship with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis

--South Carolina Republicans censure Senator Lindsey Graham for voting for Joe Biden's infrastructure bill

--Two Republican operatives are arrested in a child sex trafficking scheme

--Tennessee border agents have seized thousands of fake vaccine cards so far this year

--The View co-host Meghan McCain criticizes Joe Biden over the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and reminds everyone that her father loved endless war

--On the Bonus Show: Lauren Boebert mocked over dumb tweet, Manchin and Sinema could still derail infrastructure deal, science may be permanently politicized, and much more...

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